Steam Now Allows User-Initiated Pre-Order Cancellations

In the past, in order to cancel a pre-ordered item on Steam users had to contact Valve. Now, if Steam users change their minds about pre-purchasing a game, they can cancel it with little fuss.

If you pre-order an item, a prompt now appears next to game offering the option to "Refund an item." You no longer have to get in touch with customer support to initiate a refund on purchased, unreleased games. It's unclear if the money returns to your Steam wallet, or directly to your bank account.

Valve didn't make a formal announcement of the new feature. Instead, the new "Refund an item" button was noticed by Steam users and discussed on the Steam forums.

Our TakeThis seems like one of those features that probably should have always been present on Steam (and competing digital download services), but I am glad to see it appearing now. Better late than never.

About time. I bet everyone who pre-ordered Colonial Marines wishes that this was available back then. This is a welcome development, indeed.
Also, this article is tagged with Half-Life 3 and Gaben? Really, Game Informer? Really?

Only Valve could get away with a feature like this and even receive praise for it...

If the funds for the pre-order just end up in your Steam wallet, that isn't a full or proper refund at all because there's no way to withdraw money from your Steam wallet. It might as well be converted into Gaben Points at that point.

If you're someone who buys a lot of games on Steam, this probably won't seem like much of an issue, but for someone who only buys games occasionally, it's pretty bad having your refund locked into a digital distribution service where it can only be spent on more games and end up back in Valve's pocket.